Melting Point Shift in Supported Metal Nanoclusters

TL;DR

This paper presents a theoretical model explaining how the melting point of supported metal nanoclusters depends on their height, emphasizing the role of van der Waals forces and layer-by-layer fusion in melting behavior.

Contribution

It introduces a uniform theoretical approach incorporating vacancy mechanisms and substrate interactions to accurately describe nanocluster melting points.

Findings

Van der Waals forces significantly influence melting point shifts.

Layer-by-layer fusion model aligns with experimental data.

The approach applies to various metals and substrates.

Abstract

The dependency of the melting point of supported metal nanoclusters as function of clusters height is theoretically investigated in the framework of the uniform approach. The vacancy mechanism describing the melting point shift in nanoclusters with decrease of their size is proposed. It is shown that the essential role in clusters melting point shift is played by van der Waals forces of cluster-substrate interaction. It is shown, that the account of layer--by--layer fusion of a cluster allows to satisfactorily describe the melting of nanoclusters of various metals, deposited onto a different substrates. The proposed model satisfactorily accounts for the experimental data.